324 
BIKD-LIFE. 
hours with his song, or perchance by some feat on the 
wing or other pretty attention. At night the male roosts 
close by the nest; any further participation, however, in 
what he considers the special duty of his partner, he holds 
as unnecessary. Yet let us render honour to whom honour 
is due,—there are some fathers who take their fair share 
of sitting. From recent observation it has been dis¬ 
covered that in the case of the Ostrich the role is 
changed, inasmuch as the male not only sits on the 
eggs, but brings up the young birds, the female never so 
much as troubling herself about either of these duties. 
Other males assist the female in sitting. Among the 
following species this duty is performed by both sexes 
alike: Woodpeckers, Pigeons, Plovers and Peewits, 
the Curlews, Phalaropes, Waterhens, Gulls, Grebes, 
Divers, Shearwaters, Cormorants, Puffins, Little Auks, 
Guillemots and Razorbills: with Eagles, Vultures, 
Buzzards, Sandpipers, Nightingales, Sedge Warblers and 
others, the same also sometimes occurs. In these cases 
each relieves the other regularly, though not in equal 
proportions. In the night it is generally the female that 
sits, at all events according to my experience I only know 
of one exception to this rule, and that is the Little 
Auk ( Mergulus ); the male sits by day, hut always for a 
much shorter period than his mate. The female Pigeon 
sits willingly from three o’clock in the afternoon until 
nine the next morning, and patiently awaits the return of 
her partner, who in the meantime amuses himself as he 
likes, and that, let it be said, not always legitimately, 
to relieve her; he, on the contrary, after his five hours’ 
spell considers that he has had enough of sitting still, 
and sets up a most indignant remonstrance if his wife 
does not return to the minute. The male shows marked 
